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Chapter 13
The Rise of a Mass
Democracy,
1824–1840
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
• Corrupt bargain (1824) last old-style election
– James Monroe, last Virginia dynast, completed
his second term; four new candidates:
• John Quincy Adams-Mass., highly intelligent,
experienced, and aloof
• Henry Clay-Kentucky, the gamy and gallant “Harry of
the West”
• William H. Crawford-Georgia, an able though ailing
giant of a man
• Andrew Jackson-Tenn., gaunt, gutsy hero of New Orl.
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
(cont.)
• Four candidates:
– All four rivals professed to be “Republicans.”
– Results of the campaign:
• Jackson, the war hero, had the strongest personal
appeal, especially in the West
• Polled as many popular votes as his next two rivals
combined, but failed to win the majority of the
electoral vote (see Table 13:1)
• The deadlock must be broken by the House of
Representatives by the 12th Amendment
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
(cont.)
• Twelfth Amendment (see Appendix)
•
•
•
•
They must choose among the top three candidates
Clay was eliminated, who was Speaker of the House
Clay could throw his vote to whoever he chose
Crawford, felled by a paralytic stroke, out of the
picture
• Clay hated Jackson, his archrival in the West
• Jackson bitterly resented Clay’s public denunciation of
his Florida foray in 1818
• The only candidate left was the puritanical Adams
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
(cont.)
• Clay and Adams:
– Both were fervid nationalists and advocates of
the American System
– Clay met privately with Adams and assured him
of his support
– Decision day 1825: on the first ballot Adams was
elected president
– A few days later Adams announced Clay would
be the new secretary of state
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
(cont.)
• The office of secretary of state:
– The prize office then, even more than today
– Three preceding secretaries had reached the
presidency
– It was considered the high cabinet office on the
pathway to the White House
– According to Jackson’s supporters, Adams had
bribed Clay with the position.
– Masses of angry common folk denounce
“corrupt bargain”
Table 13-1 p247
II. A Yankee Misfit in the White House
• John Quincy Adams:
• Came to the presidency with a brilliant record in
statecraft, especially foreign affairs
• He ranks as one of the most successful secretaries of
state, yet one of the least successful presidents
• A man of scrupulous honor
• Entering the White House under charges of “bargain,”
“corruption,” and “usurpation.”
II. A Yankee Misfit in the White
House (cont.)
• Fewer than 1/3 of the voters voted for him
• First “minority president”—having difficulty winning
the popular support
• He did not possess many of the usual arts of the
politician and scorned those who did
• He had achieved high office by commanding respect
rather than by courting popularity
• He resolutely declined to oust efficient officeholders
in order to create vacancies for his supporters
• He only ever removed twelve public servants
II. A Yankee Misfit in the White
House (cont.)
– Nationalist views:
• Most people were swinging away from post-Ghent
nationalism and toward states’ rights and
sectionalism
• He swung against the tide toward nationalism
• First annual message urged Congress to the
construction of roads and canals
• He renewed Washington’s proposal for a national
university
• Went so far as to advocate federal support for an
astronomical observatory
II. A Yankee Misfit in the White
House (cont.)
• Public reaction to these proposals was prompt and
unfavorable
• His land policy antagonized the westerners
• He attempted to deal fairly with the Cherokee Indians
of Georgia
• Nullification of the national will was another nail
driven into Adam’s political coffin.
III. Going “Whole Hog” for Jackson in
1828
• Adams’ second presidential campaign
started on February 9, 1825:
– The day of Adams’ controversial election by the
House
– And continued noisily for nearly four years
– The united Republicans under the Era of Good
Feeling split:
• The National Republicans with Adams
• The Democratic-Republicans with Jackson
III. Going “Whole Hog” for Jackson
in 1828 (cont.)
• Mudslinging reached new lows in 1828
– On election day the electorate split on largely
sectional lines:
• Jackson supporters came from the West and South
(see May 13.1)
• The middle states/Old Northwest were divided:
– Adams won New England and the Northeast
– When the popular vote was converted to electoral vote,
General Jackson’s triumph could not be denied
– Old Hickory had trounced Adams by an electoral count of
178 to 83.
p249
Map 13-1 p250
IV. “Old Hickory” as President
• Youthful Carolinian moved “up West” to
Tennessee:
– There—through native intelligence, force of
personality, and powers of leadership—he
became a judge and a member of Congress
– The first president from the West:
• The first nominated at a formal party convention
(1832)
IV. “Old Hickory” as President
(cont.)
• Only the second without a college education
(Washington was the first)
• Jackson was unique:
– His university was adversity. He had risen from the masses,
but he was not one of them, except insofar as he shared
many of their prejudices.
– Essentially a frontier aristocrat, he owned many slaves,
cultivated broad acres, and lived in one of the finest
mansions in America—the Hermitage, near Nashville.
• Jackson’s inauguration:
– Symbolized the ascendancy of the masses.
– The White House, for the first time, was thrown open.
V. The Spoils System
• Spoils System—rewarding political
supporters with public office
– Was introduced into the federal government on
a large scale
– Jackson defined it on democratic grounds:
• “Every man is as good as his neighbor, perhaps
equally better.”
• Washington was due for a housecleaning.
V. The Spoils System
(cont.)
• The spoils system was less about finding new
blood than about rewarding old cronies.
– Scandal accompanied the new system
– Those who openly bought their posts by
campaign contributions were appointed to high
office
• Illiterates, incompetents, and plain crooks were given
positions of public trust.
• Despite its abuse, the spoils system was an important
element of the emerging two-party order.
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of
Abominations”
• Tariffs—problem for John Quincy Adams and
now for Andrew Jackson:
– Tariffs protected American industry against
competition from European manufactured goods
– But they also drove up prices for all Americans
– And invited retaliatory tariffs on American
agricultural exports abroad
– The middle states had long been supporters of
protectionist tariffs
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of
Abominations” (cont.)
– Daniel Webster gave up his traditional defense of
free trade to support higher tariffs
– In 1824 Congress had increased the general tariff
significantly
– Jacksonites supported a high-tariff bill
• which surprisingly was passed in 1828
• Andrew Jackson inherited the political hot potato
• Southerners were hostile to tariffs and branded it the
“Tariff of Abominations”
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of
Abominations” (cont.)
• Why did the South react so angrily?
– They believed that the “Yankee tariff”
discriminated against them
– The Old South was falling on hard times, and the
tariff provided a convenient and plausible
scapegoat
– Protectionism protected the Yankee and middle-state
manufacturers
– The farmers and planters of the Old South felt they were
stuck with the bill
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of
Abominations “(cont.)
• Much deeper issues underlay southern
outcry:
– A growing anxiety about possible federal
interference with the institution of slavery
• Kindled by congressional debate on the Missouri
Compromise
• Further fanned by an aborted slave rebellion in
Charleston in 1822, led by a black named Denmark
Vesey
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of
Abominations” (cont.)
• Abolitionism in America might use the power of the
government in Washington to suppress slavery in the
South
• Now was the time, using the tariff, to take a stand on
principle against all federal encroachments on states’
rights
• South Carolinians took the lead in protesting against
the “Tariff of Abominations”
– They published a pamphlet known as The South Carolina
Exposition
VI. The Tricky “Tariff of
Abominations” (cont.)
• The South Carolina Exposition:
– It was secretly written by John C. Calhoun, one
of the few topflight political theorists ever
produced by America
– It denounced the recent tariff as unjust and
unconstitutional
– It bluntly and explicitly proposed that the states
should nullify the tariff—that is, they should
declare it null and void within their borders.
Table 13-2 p253
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
• Nullifiers—“nullies”:
– Tried to get the 2/3 vote for nullification in the
South Carolina legislature
– They were blocked by the Unionists-“submission
men”
• In Washington, Congress tipped the balance by
passing the new Tariff of 1832
– The Nullification Crisis deepened
• South Carolina was now ready for drastic action
• Nullifiers and Unionists clashed in the election of
1832
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
(cont.)
• The Nullification Crisis (cont.)
– “Nullies” emerged with 2/3 majority vote
– The state legislature called for a special session
– Several weeks later the delegates, meeting in
Columbia, declared the existing tariff null and
void in South Carolina
– The convention threatened to take South
Carolina out of the union if Washington
attempted to collect the customs duties by
force.
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
(cont.)
• Jackson was neither a supporter of the tariff,
nor would he permit defiance or disunion:
– He threatened to invade the state and have the
nullifiers hanged
– He issued a ringing proclamation against
nullification
– If civil war was to be avoided, one side would
have to surrender, or both would have to
compromise
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
(cont.)
• Henry Clay stepped forward:
– Not a great supporter of the tariff
– But did influence a compromise bill that would
gradually reduce the tariff
• Congress passed the Force Bill—which authorized the
president to use the army and navy if necessary to
collect federal tariff duties.
• Facing civil war within and invasion from without, the
Columbia convention met again and repealed the
ordinance of nullification.
VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina
(cont.)
• Neither Jackson nor the “nullies” won a
clear-cut victory in 1833
• Clay was the true hero
VIII. The Trail of Tears
• Jefferson committed to western expansion:
– Meant confrontation with the current
inhabitants
• 125,000 Native Americans lived east of Mississippi
• Federal policy toward them varied
• 1790s the federal government recognized the tribes
as separate nations and agreed to acquire land only
through formal treaty
• Many whites felt respect and admiration for the
Indians and believe they could be assimilated
VIII. The Trail of Tears
(cont.)
• Energy was devoted to “civilizing” and
Christianizing the Indians.
• In 1878 The Society for the Propagating the
Gospel among the Indians was founded.
• The federal government appropriated
$20,000 for the promotion of literacy and
agriculture and vocational instruction among
the Indians
VIII. The Trail of Tears
(cont.)
• The Cherokees of George made remarkable
efforts to learn the ways of the white
– Missionaries opened schools
– 1808 the Cherokee National Council legislated a
written legal code
– Some Cherokees became prosperous cotton
planters and even turn to slaveholding
– Nearly 13,000 black slaves toiled for their Native
American masters in 1820s
VIII. The Trail of Tears
(cont.)
• “Five Civilized Tribes”—Cherokees, Creeks,
Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles:
• Jackson want to open Indian lands to white
settlement, refused to recognize the Court’s decisions
• To rescue the Indians, Jackson proposed to a bodily
removal of the remaining eastern tribes
• Emigration was supposed to be voluntary
• Jackson’s policy led to uprooting of more than
100,000 Indians
VIII. Trails of Tears
(cont.)
• Indian Removal Act—1830:
– The transplantation of all Indian tribes then
resident east of the Mississippi (see Map 13.2)
– The heaviest blow fell on the Five Civilized Tribes
– Many died of forced migration, most notably the
Cherokees along the notorious Trail of Tears
– The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in
1836
VIII. Trails of Tears
(cont.)
• Black Hawk War of 1832 was by regular
troops and volunteers
• In Florida the Seminole Indians joined
runaway black slaves; retreated to the
Everglades
• For seven years (1835-1842) they waged a
war that took 15,000 soldiers’ lives
• The sprit of the Seminole was broken in 1837
p256
p257
Map 13-2 p258
IX. The Bank War
• President did not hate all banks and all
business, but he distrusted monopolist
banking and overbig businesses:
– The federal government minted gold and silver
coins mid-nineteenth century, but no paper
money
• Paper money was printed by private banks.
• Their value fluctuated with the health of the bank
and the amount of money printed.
IX. The Bank War
(cont.)
• The Bank of the United States:
– Most powerful bank
– It acted like a branch of the government
– Principal depository for government funds
– Controlled much of the government’s gold and
silver
– Its notes were stable
• A source of credit and stability, it was an important
and useful part of the nation’s expanding economy
IX. The Bank War
(cont.)
• But the Bank was a private institution:
– Bank President Nicholas Biddle had immense
and, to many, unconstitutional power over the
nation’s financial affairs
– To some the bank seemed to sin against the
egalitarian credo of American democracy
• This conviction formed the deepest source of
Jackson’s opposition
• The banks won no friends in the West
• Profit, not public service, was its first priority
IX. The Bank War
(cont.)
• The Bank War erupted in 1832:
– When Daniel Webster and Henry Clay presented
the Congress with a bill to renew the Bank of the
United States’ charter
• The charter was not to expire until 1836, but Clay
pushed for renewal four years early to make it an
election issue in 1832
• Clay‘s scheme was to run a recharter bill through
Congress and then send it to the White House
IX. The Bank War
(cont.)
• If Jackson signed it, he would alienate his
worshipful western followers
• If he vetoed it, he would presumably lose the
presidency in the upcoming election by
alienating the wealthy and influential groups
in the East
• The recharter bill slid through Congress, but
was killed by scorching veto from Jackson
IX. The Bank War
(cont.)
• The Supreme Court declared the
monopolistic bank to be constitutional in
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
– Jackson’s veto message reverberated with
constitutional consequences
– But vastly amplified the power of the presidency.
• He was arguing that he vetoed because he personally
found it harmful to the nation.
• He was claiming for the president alone a power
equal to 2/3 of the votes in Congress.
X. “Old Hickory” Wallops Clay in 1832
• Clay and Jackson were the candidates for the
upcoming election in 1832:
– For the first time a third party entered the
field—the newborn Anti-Masonic party:
• They became a political force in New York and spread
to the middle Atlantic and New England states
• The Anti-Masons appealed to long-standing American
suspicions of secret societies
• Since Jackson was a Mason, the Anti-Masonic party
was also anti-Jackson
X. “Old Hickory” Wallops Clay in
1832 (cont.)
• Anti-Masons attracted support from many evangelical
Protestant groups seeking to use political power to
effect moral and religious reforms
– Another novelty of the presidential contest in
1832 was the calling of national nominating
conventions (three of them) to name candidates
– The Anti-Masons and the National Republicans
added the formal platform, publicizing their
positions on the issues
X. “Old Hickory” Wallops Clay in
1832 (cont.)
• Clay and National Republicans’ advantages:
– They had ample funds, including $50,000 in “life
insurance” from the Bank of the United States
– Most newspapers editors dipped their pens in
acid when they wrote of Jackson
• Yet Jackson, idol of the masses, easily
defeated the big-money Kentuckian
• The popular vote was 687,502 to 530,189 for
Jackson—electoral count was 219 to 49
p261
XI. Burying Biddle’s Bank
• The charter denied, the Bank of the United
States was due to expire in 1836:
– Jackson was not one to let it die
– He decided to bury the Bank by removing all
federal deposits
– He further proposed depositing no more funds
– Gradually shrunk existing deposits by using them
to defray the day-to-day expenses of the
government
XI. Burying Biddle’s Bank
(cont.)
• The death of the Bank of the United States
left a financial vacuum and kicked off a
lurching cycle of booms and busts:
– Surplus of federal funds in state institutions—the
so-called pet banks
– No central control; the pet banks and smaller
“wildcat” banks were more fly-by-night
operations
XI. Burying Biddle’s Bank
(cont.)
• Jackson tried to rein in the runaway
economy
– He authorized the Treasury to issue a Specie
Circular—a decree that required all public land
to be purchased with “hard,” or metallic, money.
– This drastic step slammed the brakes on the
speculative boom, thus contributing to the
financial panic and crash in 1837
XII. The Birth of the Whigs
• New parties:
– 1828 the Democratic-Republicans adopted the
“Democrats”
– The Whigs created by Jackson’s opponents
• They hated Jackson and his “executive usurpation”
• First emerged in the US Senate, where Clay, Webster,
and Calhoun joined forces in 1834 to pass a motion
censuring Jackson for his single-handed removal of
federal deposits from the Bank of the United States
XII. The Birth of the Whigs
(cont.)
• Others who joined the Whigs:
• Supporters of Clay’s American System, southern
states’ righters, larger northern industrialists and
merchants, and many evangelical Protestants.
• Whigs thought of themselves as
Conservatives, yet progressive in their
support of active government programs and
reforms
• Called for internal improvements like canals,
railroads, telegraph lines, and support for institutionsprisons, asylums, and public schools.
XII. The Birth of Whigs
(cont.)
• Other issues for the Whigs:
– They welcomed the market economy
– By absorbing the Anti-Masonic party, they
blunted the Democratic appeal to the common
man
– Now the Whigs claimed to be the defenders of
the common man and declared the Democrats
the party of cronyism and corruption
XIII. The Election of 1836
• Martin Van Buren of New York:
– Was Jackson’s choice for “appointment” as his
successor in 1836
– Jackson rigged the nominating convention and
rammed his friend to the delegates
• Van Buren was supported by the Jacksonites without
wild enthusiasm
• The Whigs showed their inability to
nominate a single presidential candidate
XIII. The Election of 1836
(cont.)
• The Whigs’ strategy was to run several
“favorite sons”:
• each with a different regional appeal, hoping to
scatter the vote so no one candidate would win a
majority
• The deadlock would have to be decided by the House
of Representatives, where the Whigs would have a
chance
• The Whigs’ “favorite son” was General William Henry
Harrison of Ohio, hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe
(see p. 220)
XIII. The Election of 1836
(cont.)
• The Whigs’ scheme availed nothing:
– Van Buren, the dapper “Little Magician,”
squirmed into office by popular vote of 765,483
to 739,795
– And a comfortable margin of 170 to 124 votes
(for all the Whigs combined) in the Electoral
College
XIV. Big Woes for the “Little
Magician”
– Martin Van Buren, eighth president, first to be
born under the American flag
• A statesman of wide experience in both legislative
and administrative life
• In intelligence, education, and training, he was above
the average of the president since Jackson.
– He labored under severe handicaps:
• As a machine-made candidate, he incurred the
resentment of many Democrats
• He was the master showman
XIV. Big Woes for the “Little
Magician” (cont.)
• He inherited the ex-president’s numerous and
vengeful enemies
– His four years overflowed with toil and trouble:
• A pair of short-lived rebellions in Canada in 1837
stirred up incidents along the northern frontier and
threatened war
• The antislavery agitators were condemning the
prospective annexation of Texas (see p. 268)
• Jackson bequeathed to Van Buren the markings of a
searing depression of which he battled the panic
Map 13-3 p267
XV. Depression Doldrums and the
Independent Treasury
• The panic of 1837:
– Its basic cause was rampant speculation
prompted by a mania of get-rich-quickism
– The speculative craze spread from western lands
and “wildcat banks” to canals, roads, railroads,
and slaves
– Jackson’s finance, including the Bank War and
the Species Circular, gave an additional jolt
– Failures of wheat crops deepened the distress
XV. Depression Doldrums and the
Independent Treasury (cont.)
– Financial stringency abroad endangered
America’s economy
• Two major British banks failed
– Hardship was acute and widespread
• American banks collapsed by the hundreds
• Commodity prices drooped, sales of public lands fell
off, customs revenues dried up
• Factories closed and unemployed workers increased
XV, Depression Doldrums and the
Independent Treasury (cont.)
• Whigs had proposals for active government
remedies:
– Called for the expansion of bank credit, higher
tariffs, and subsidies for internal improvements
– Van Buren spurned these ideas
– Van Buren’s “Divorce Bill”
• the principle of “divorcing” the government from
banking altogether
• By establishing a so-called independent treasury, the
government could lock its surplus money in vaults
XV. Depression Doldrums and the
Independent Treasury (cont.)
• Van Buren’s “divorce” scheme was never highly
popular
• Fellow Democrats lukewarmly supported it
• Whigs condemned it, primarily because it squelched
their hopes for a revived Bank of the United States
• After a prolonged struggle, the Independent Treasury
Bill passed Congress in 1840
• Repealed the next year by the Whigs, the scheme was
reenacted the next year by the Democrats in 1846
• And continued until the Republicans instituted a
network of national banks during the Civil War
XVI. Gone to Texas
• In 1821 Mexicans won their independence:
– A new regime in Mexico City concluded 1823
agreements for granting a huge tract of land to
Stephen Austin
• Promising he would bring 300 American families to
Texas
• Immigrants were to be Roman Catholics
• And settlements were to become properly
Mexicanized
• These two stipulations were largely ignored
XVI. Gone to Texas
(cont.)
• Texan Americans:
• Numbered about 30,000 by 1835 (see Makers of
America: Mexican or Texican?” pp. 268-269)
• Most were law-abiding and God-fearing, but some of
them had left the “States” ahead of the sheriff
• “G.T.T.” (Gone to Texas) became descriptive slang
• Among them were Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie
• A latecomer was an ex-governor of Tennessee, Sam
Houston
• The pioneer individualists who came to Texas were
not to easy to push around
XVI. Gone to Texas
(cont.)
• Friction increased between Mexicans and
Texans over issues:
• Slavery, immigration, and local rights
• Slavery was a particularly touchy topic
• Mexico emancipated its slaves in 1830 and prohibited
further importation of slaves into Texas, as well as
further colonization by troublesome Americans
• The Texans refused to honor these decrees
• They kept their slaves in bondage, and new American
settlers kept bringing more slaves into Texas
XVI. Gone to Texas
(cont.)
• Stephen Austen went to Mexico City in 1833
to negotiate these differences
– Dictator Santa Anna clapped him in jail for eight
months
– The explosion came to an end in 1835, when
Santa Anna:
• wiped out all local rights
• started to raise an army to suppress the upstart Texas
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
• In 1836 Texas declared its independence:
– Unfurled their Long Star flag
– Named Sam Houston commander in chief
– Santa Anna with 6000 men swept into Texas
• He trapped 200 Texans at the Alamo in San Antonio,
wiping them out in thirteen days
• Later a band of 400 surrounded and defeated them,
throwing down their arms at Goliad, were butchered
as “pirates”
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
(cont.)
• Results:
– All these operations delayed the Mexican
advance and galvanized American opposition
• Slain heroes like Jim Bowie and David Crockett
became legendary in death
• Texan war cries: “Remember the Alamo!” “Remember
Goliad,” and “Death to Santa Anna”
• Scores of vengeful Americans seized their rifles and
rushed to the aid of relatives, friends, and
compatriots
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
(cont.)
• General Sam Houston’s small army retreated
to the east:
• Luring Santa Anna to San Jacinto, near the site of the
city that bears Houston’s name (see Map 13.3)
• Mexicans were 13,000 men, and the Texans 900
• On April 21, 1836, Houston, taking advantage of the
Mexican siesta, wiped out the pursuing forces and
captured Santa Anna
• Facing 30 bowie knives, he was speedily induced to
sign two treaties
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
(cont.)
• Terms of the treaty:
– Santa Anna agreed to withdraw Mexican troops
– And to recognize the Rio Grande as the extreme
southwestern boundary of Texas
– When Santa Anna was released, he repudiated
the agreement as illegal because it had been
extorted under duress
– The Mexicans bitterly complained
XVII. The Lone Star Rebellion
(cont.)
– Americans overwhelmingly favorable to Texans,
openly nullified the existing legislation
– In 1837, President Jackson extended recognition
to the Lone Star Republic, led by his old
comrade-in-arms against the Indians, Sam
Houston
– Many Texans wanted both recognition of their
independence and outright union with the
United States
XVII. The Long Star Rebellion
(cont.)
• Texas petitioned for annexation in 1837:
– United Sam was held back by the slavery issue
– Most of the immigrants came from the South
and Southwest; these were closer states
– The explanation was proximity rather than
conspiracy
– Many Texans were slaveholders and admitting
Texas to the Union inescapably meant enlarging
American slavery
p267
XVIII. Log Cabins and Hard Cider of
1840
• Martin van Buren was renominated in 1840
by the Democrats
• The Whigs, learning from their mistakes,
nominated one candidate: Ohio’s William
Henry Harrison, believed to be the ablest
vote-getter
– Whigs published no official platform
– Whigs, as a result of a Democratic editor,
adopted hard cider and log cabin as symbols
XVIII. Log Cabins and Hard Cider
of 1840 (cont.)
– The Whig campaign was a masterpiece of inane
hoopla
• Harrison was from one of the FFV’s (“First Families of
Virginia”)
• Harrison won by the surprisingly close margin of
1,274,624 to 1,127,781 popular votes, by an
overwhelming electoral margin of 234 to 60
– Whigs sought to expand and stimulate the
economy, while Democrats favored high-flying
banks, aggressive corporations, retrenchment
p270
XIX. Politics for the People
– The election of 1840 conclusively demonstrated
two major changes in American politics since the
Era of Good Feelings:
• The triumph of a populist democratic style
– By 1840s aristocracy was the taint, and democracy was
respectable
– Politicians were now forced to curry favorites with the
voting masses
– Now wealthy and prominent men had to forsake all social
pretensions and cultivate the common touch if they hoped
to win elections
XIX. Politics for the People
(cont.)
• The common man was at last moving to the center of
the national political stage.
• America was now bowing to the divine right of the
people.
p272
XX. The Two-Party System
• The second dramatic change resulting from
the 1840 election was the formation of a
vigorous and durable two-party system:
• The Jeffersonians were so successful in absorbing the
programs of their Federalist opponents that a fullblown two-party system never emerged
• The idea prevailed that parties smacked of conspiracy
and “faction” and were injurious to the health of the
body politic in a virtuous republic
XX. The Two-Party System
(cont.)
• Both national parties:
• Grew out of Jeffersonian republicanism
– And each laid claim to different aspects of republican
inheritance
– Jacksonian Democrats glorified the liberty of the individual
and guarded against the inroads of “privilege” into
government
• Whigs:
– Triumphed the natural harmony of society and the value of
community and were willing to use government to realize
their objectives
– They berated those leaders who appealed to self-interest
XX. The Two-Party System
(cont.)
• The Democrats clung to states’ rights and federal
restraint in social and economic affairs
• The Whigs tended to favor a renewed national bank,
protective tariffs, internal improvements, public
schools, and moral reforms—prohibition and slavery
– They separated by real differences of philosophy
and policy, but had much in common:
• Mass-based, “catchall” parties to mobilize many
voters as possible for their cause.
• When the two-party system creaked in the 1850s, the
Union was mortally imperiled.
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